A recruitment campaign encouraging workers to take a second job in housekeeping highlights a worrying phenomenon, according to several organizations and researchers.
Posters of the Roy company can be found on the walls of a few metro stations in Montreal. On the Georges-Vanier wharf, the photo of an employee with Asian features is accompanied by the following message: “Waitress during the day. Evening maintenance worker. A 2e job as a housekeeping attendant, it’s easy and pays off! It then praises the flexible schedule and an hourly rate between $19.74 and $19.97. On other versions, we present an administrative assistant who uses this extra work.
When she saw this ad, writer Juliana Léveillé-Trudel was shocked. She wrote to Duty.
“Easy, you say? After an eight-hour day of being up and running from table to table, and probably kids cooking supper, going across town to wipe down a private school toilet? Getting home before midnight, if you’re lucky, washing the dishes and preparing lunches, then sleeping for a few hours before starting again the next day? “, she was indignant.
Attached to the phone, Mme Léveillé-Trudel argued that we should not “kill ourselves at work to arrive financially” and that such an announcement trivializes a difficult situation.
The Roy company says that this offer meets a need and is part of a trend. Leaders see it with their own employees and the applications they receive: in the past year, many people are looking to work more hours and hold more than one job. Still having difficulty recruiting full-time employees for certain less popular evening and night shifts, they decided to turn to those who already have another job.
“We offer good wages for the type of work they do, but it’s also not huge given the cost of current housing and groceries. We have a lot of employees who struggle to meet their needs every month,” testified Isabelle Leblanc, vice-president of human capital and organizational development at Roy.
“It is a current reality for many. Is it shocking to assert this reality?, she wondered. People are allowed to indulge in small leisure activities that they would not allow themselves in other circumstances. »
The strategy seems to have paid off, as Roy received around 1,000 resumes in two months, 40% of which came from this campaign. Mme Leblanc indicates that they have hired in recent months a large proportion of newcomers who are in their first job in Canada.
The right conditions
Reports in recent months indicate that duplication is indeed in vogue. According to an online survey conducted for TurboTax, 23% of Canadian workers reported having a second job. Similar results for a study by H&R Block, which found that more and more Canadians, 28%, are doing paid work in addition to their main job. The rise in the cost of living would be to blame.
Labor shortages are forcing many employers to offer better wages and working conditions, but this does not necessarily benefit all workers, points out Tania Saba, a professor at the School of Industrial Relations at the University of Montreal. Immigrants and people with little education, for example, often have to continue accepting less attractive jobs.
Gigs, like Uber, more easily connect workers and businesses for odd jobs.
“All the factors are aligned: there are a good number of low-wage people looking to supplement their incomes and a labor shortage that makes the employer open to offering hours rather than jobs” , says Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay, professor at the School of Administrative Sciences at TÉLUQ University.
An issue of physical and psychological well-being
Mme Saba and M.me Tremblay are both concerned about the welfare of workers who take this route. “Most waitresses will say that at the end of a night their backs hurt and their feet hurt. Cleaning is also quite physical. So there is a physical and mental health issue, because there is not much time left for personal and family life,” commented Ms.me Tremblay.
Vincent Chevarie, head of communications at the organization Au bas de l’echelle, finds it problematic to promote a second job as if it were something desirable. He finds negative repercussions in people who work 50 to 70 hours a week.
“There are risks of scheduling conflicts, stress, work accidents. They will often feel exhausted, underperforming and even alienated,” he noted, calling the trend “alarming.”
For Virginie Larivière, spokesperson for the Collective for a Quebec Without Poverty, this advertisement shows in a spectacular way that the minimum wage is no longer enough to allow people to live decently.
“It is a strong image of the capitalist system in which we are. We are going to exploit misery by offering to work more. It is often said that poverty is a job full-time, because it’s a lot of effort to run the help desks and discounts. With this scenario, this sentence will never have been so fair, ”said Mme River.